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Hazleton-area projects get $2M in gaming proceeds

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The Hazleton Integration Project received $450,000 to open Hazleton One Community Center in the former Most Precious Blood Catholic School on East Fourth Street.

ELLEN O'CONNELL/Staff Photographer
One million dollars in state gaming funds will help renovate the Traders Bank building at 2 E. Broad St. in Hazleton.

The Hazleton area hit it big at the casinos, winning grants of $2,085,560 from the state's share of gambling proceeds on Wednesday.

Those funds will help renovate the Traders Bank in downtown Hazleton, open a youth center envisioned by Major League Baseball manager Joe Maddon, and install a new furnace and stop water from seeping into the basement at a school for infants and children.

There's also money for roads in Black Creek and Butler townships and funds to help the Nuremberg Community Players open a new theater in a former church.

"I was so overwhelmed, I started crying and saying 'God bless you, God bless you,'" Mary Beth Koch said after getting $285,000 for the Helping Hands Society that she directs.

Helping Hands will use the money to replace the furnace and dewater the cellar of its building at 301 Rocky Road, where staff members have trained children, including those with developmental delays, for 40 years.

She thanked state Sen. John Yudichak, D-14; state Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-116, and Hazleton Mayor Joseph Yannuzzi for touring the facility, and those officials and U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11, for supporting the grant request. Other recipients echoed those thanks and also expressed gratitude to state Sen. John Gordner, R-27, who backed the projects in Butler and Black Creek.

In downtown Hazleton, $1 million will help renovate the Traders building at 2 E. Broad St.

"This is exactly what it is going to take to get this project completed," George F. Hayden of Hayden Electric said. Hayden and Neal and Paul DeAngelo formed a partnership four months ago to renovate the Traders and Hazleton National Bank buildings as part of a plan to bring the world headquarters of the DeAngelos' firm, DBi Services, to downtown.

Hayden said the partners await word on other loans and grants but hope to start construction in the summer.

"We're very excited that the state recognizes how important the project is for us to make our downtown better and our community better," Hayden said.

The youth center that Maddon plans for his hometown will get $450,000.

His Hazleton Integration Project wants to open Hazleton One Community Center in the former Most Precious Blood Catholic School on East Fourth Street. The money will pay to install an elevator, accessible bathrooms, an entrance ramp, efficient lighting and heating fixtures and to remove asbestos.

In Butler Township, a grant of $132,000 will pay to finish paving St. Johns Road. The township paved three miles of the road last year with a $150,000 grant.

Township Manager Maryanne Petrilla said this year's grant will pay for repairing the road from the Interstate 81 underpass, which is near St. Johns United Church of Christ, west to the Sugarloaf Township line, just west of Burger's Farm Market. She said the grant also should allow for repaving part of Butler Drive from the overpass of I-81 near Krapf and Hughes Funeral Home west to the Sugarloaf line.

"It means better driving for the people. We also can use tax money for police and police cars and other things that we need because we are growing so fast," Butler Supervisor Brian Kisenwether said.

Black Creek Supervisor Dennis Feerrar said the $150,000 that his township received will pay most of the bill for rebuilding Tower Road for 1.9 miles between Cedar Head Road and Chick's Lane.

"It needs quite a bit of work," Feerrar said.

The grant notice says the shoulders, base, storm water network and surface of the road all need repairs.

"It's good news. In the last two years, Black Creek Township got over $400,000," he said.

Last year, Black Creek received $200,000 for a recycling center that is set to open this spring.

This year, the Nuremberg Players in the township received $68,560 to finish remaking St. Joseph R.C. Church into a theater.

"Quite honestly, it blew me away. We worked so hard to get where we are. All at once, there is no doubt, it is going to come to pass," Wayne Seely of the Players said.

After buying the church at 283 Hazle St., Nuremberg, two years ago, the Players raised money and found volunteers to remove the alter and reuse the wood in the lobby. They also installed stadium seating, lighting and part of the sound system.

But they knew the single bathroom downstairs wouldn't suffice.

With the grant they will install an addition on the main level for men's and women's restrooms that will be accessible to people with disabilities. Two handicapped parking spaces also will be marked on the parking lot outside.

While renovating the church, the group performed in other venues, such as Black Creek United Methodist Church, where a dinner and production of "Café Murder" will be held next weekend. A reprise performance and dinner are scheduled on Mother's Day at Christ Lutheran Church, Conyngham, on Mother's Day. For tickets, call Seely at 570-384-4407.

He said the curtain will open, so to speak, for the first show in the new theater in October, although the group can't afford a curtain just yet.

kjackson@standardspeaker.com

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